Jacob de la Gardie

Jacob de la Gardie (20 June 1583-22 August 1652) was Lord High Constable of Sweden from 1620 to 1652, succeeding Axel Nilsson Ryning and preceding Gustaf Horn.

Biography
Jacob de la Gardie was born in Reval, Swedish Estonia, Sweden (now Tallinn, Estonia) on 20 June 1583, a son of Pontus de la Gardie and King John III of Sweden's illegitimate daughter Sofia Gyllenhielm. His mother died giving birth, and his father drowned in the Narva River two years later. De la Gardie was raised by his maternal grandmother, and he volunteered in the Dutch Revolt from 1606 to 1608. Impressed by Maurice of Nassau's innovative military reforms, De la Gardie introduced Dutch ways of war to the Swedish army upon his return to Sweden's service. From 1609 to 1610, he launched a campaign to defeat False Dmitry II and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Polish-Swedish Wars, but he suffered a crushing defeat at Klushino in 1610. However, he redeemed himself during the Ingrian War with Russia, negotiating Swedish territorial acquisitions at the war's end in 1617. From 1619 to 1622, he served as Governor of Swedish Estonia, and then as Governor of Swedish Livonia from 1622 to 1628. From 1626 to 1628, he served as commander-in-chief during the war with Poland, and he negotiated another peace treaty in 1635. He would come to have pro-French and pro-Polish views, making him rivals with Chancellor Axel Oxtenstierna, who led Sweden's war effort in the Thirty Years' War following the death of King Gustavus Adolphus in 1632. De la Gardie died in 1652, with his son Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie becoming Queen Christina of Sweden's favorite, and his other son Jakob Kasimir de la Gardie becoming a general.